'You have to turn doubters into believers' - Cowley

Danny Cowley was appointed Colchester United's head coach in January 2024

Colchester United supporters are more optimistic than when Danny Cowley took over but are not yet completely confident, according to the head coach.

The U's 2-1 win over Port Vale on Tuesday stretched their unbeaten run to 12 games and took them to within one point of the League Two play-off places with 10 games remaining.

At the same stage last season only goal difference was keeping them out of the relegation zone.

"Lots of people have worked really, really hard to get on the right side of those small margins so I'm proud of everyone really, all the staff, the academy, the players, - I think everybody is pulling in the right direction," Cowley told BBC Sport.

"When you get people working hard and you get people pulling in the right direction then special things can happen."

Colchester have had four seasons of struggle, including avoiding relegation from the EFL on the final day of last season, with Cowley appointed head coach in January 2024.

The former Lincoln and Portsmouth boss believes rebuilding a connection between the club and the community has been key to turning around their fortunes.

"It's hard for me because I didn't know what it was like before but the connection is really, really strong.

"It was brilliant tonight, you can see everyone was disappointed (when Port Vale equalised) but they just kept going and when the people on the terraces keep going the players just responded."

Cowley and his brother Nicky moved into full-time management with Lincoln City in 2016 after successful spells with Essex clubs Concord Rangers and Braintree Town.

They took the Imps from the National League to League One in three seasons as well as winning the EFL Trophy in 2018 before keeping Huddersfield in the Championship and a two-year spell at Portsmouth.

The former PE teacher thinks there are similarities between the job they did at Lincoln and that now required at Colchester.

"It was just trying to reconnect the community and the people with the club, which is normal when the team has suffered and the club hasn't done as well as everyone would have liked.

"So I knew that there was some work to do there and you kind of have to turn the doubters into believers."

Colchester were 16th, 10 points short of the top seven, at the turn of the year but a win over Fleetwood on Saturday could take them into the play-off places for the first time this season.

"There will still be people on my social media, Colchester United fans, who will be fearing the worst, because we haven't quite got them confident yet but they are definitely more optimistic than they were and we just have to stay really humble, stay really focused and keep pushing," Cowley added.